Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman leaves a sports arena after a practice session for North Korean basketball players in Pyongyang, North Korea on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013. Rodman selected the members of the North Korean team who will play in Pyongyang against visiting NBA stars on Jan. 8, 2014, the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Former NBA basketball star Dennis Rodman leaves a sports arena after a practice session for North Korean basketball players in Pyongyang, North Korea on Friday, Dec. 20, 2013. Rodman selected the members of the North Korean team who will play in Pyongyang against visiting NBA stars on Jan. 8, 2014, the birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)(David Guttenfelder)

When it comes to the nation of North Korea, Dennis "The Worm" Rodman, the eccentric NBA all-time great, cannot be easily ignored. It's almost like he's perpetually auditioning for the non-existent post of United States' ambassador to North Korea.

Here's his latest foray into North Korean diplomacy.

A Cincinnati man was released from a North Korean prison Tuesday after being incarcerated for more than 15 months for what the Democratic People's Republic of Korea described as hostile acts against the regime. Otto Warmbier, 22, had been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, after he was accused of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel where he had stayed as a tourist.

Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was forced to confess to his "crimes" and later became critically ill during his incarceration. He flew home Tuesday in a coma-like state, according to some media reports.

This is where Rodman seems to come into the story.

The NBA Hall of Fame player arrived in Pyongyang for a four-day visit the same day Warmbier was released. It was his fourth trip to the nation in three years. Rodman, who has previously described North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as his "friend for life," told CNN shortly before landing in North Korea that he hoped to achieve "something pretty positive" during the visit.

A prisoner release would fall squarely into that category.

The curious timing of Warmbier's return to Cincinnati is almost as startling as Rodman's continued flirtation with Kim and his Communist regime. As North Korea maintains a relentless quest to develop a missile capable of reaching the United States mainland and has conducted a number of nuclear tests this year, Warmbier's release is as confounding as it is welcomed.

"We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime in North Korea. We are so grateful that he will finally be with people who love him," said Cindy and Fred Warmbier, his parents.

That sense of relief is shared throughout this nation, which also wonders how long North Korea will be permitted to continue its nuclear designs and to foment dangerous international threats.

In the meantime, it's worth pondering whether Rodman is a diplomat of note - or, if his apparent emerging interest in cannabis somehow is being mistaken for international diplomacy.

PotCoin, a company that created a digital currency to "facilitate transactions within the legalized cannabis industry," sponsored Rodman's latest trip to North Korea. His sponsorship by the Montreal-based marijuana enterprise raises a host of fascinating questions.

Most notably, is North Korea somehow angling to get in on that lucrative industry?

Rodman, who endorsed presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election campaign and appeared twice as a contestant on Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice" TV show, said his latest visit was merely designed to visit old friends and to "have a good time."

But deplaning in North Korea wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with PotCoin.com made it clear that his earlier "basketball diplomacy" ventures with North Korea have now morphed into what some internet wags described as "weed diplomacy." PotCoin stock soared nearly 100 percent after news and photos of Rodman were published upon his arrival in North Korea.

An Irish gambling company sponsored one of Rodman's earlier visits to the rogue nation. Now, a marijuana company sponsors his latest junket to North Korea, a country where smoking weed is believed to be punishable by death.

Perhaps vice as a virtue is something that North Korea can be enticed to understand. In that case, Rodman appears perfectly suited to engage in ongoing diplomacy with a nation that claims to dream of America's demise.